Stress
by Goten0040
Summary: Stress can change attitudes, cause sleep disorders, and even destroy the immune system. Strange how it can sometimes change life for the better. This is how I became human again. SetoxSerenity
1. Chapter 1

**Stress**

(Author's Note: I do not own or claim any of the _Yu-Gi-Oh! _enterprise including cards, names, toys, characters, etc. This story is just a random idea. Enjoy.)

(Summary: Stress can change attitudes, cause sleep disorders, and even destroy the immune system. Strange how it can sometimes change life for the better. This is how I became human again. SetoxSerenity)

--

Chapter One

--

There was a time, a few years ago, when Kaiba Corporation pretty much ran itself. I, being a mere teenager, basked in the glow that was wealth and prosperity, and watched my company flourish into a giant conglomerate. I had time to invent, time to think, time to enjoy fame and the skills I had earned in the game I had just so happened to cash in on. My Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon Empire had scattered the world, and I enjoyed every minute of my well deserved success.

That was before.

Things had changed drastically over the three years. I wasn't eighteen anymore. I was twenty-one, and my success had turned to a nightmare. Yes, Duel Monsters was still quite popular, but after many attempts at sabotage, I had to take the company under my own control for the sake of my money, my family, and even, my life. It seemed almost every person underneath me had betrayed me, and the harder I tried to earn their respect, the more the work piled on.

It got to where I felt almost alone among a worldwide company. Every person around me was a potential threat. I sat in my swivel chair, gazing at the large stack of papers on my desk, almost curious as to how the hell that many papers could make it to my desk in five minutes. Almost mechanically, my hand reached over the desktop, grasped a pen, and began to sign the bottoms of the documents with an almost robotic quality.

My shoulders were aching. They'd been aching for a year and a half - or at least, that was when I noticed they ached. My hand constantly cramped up from overuse on the laptop, the desktop, with pens, carrying papers, and the constant add-ons the company offered. I gulped another drawn out slurp from my cooling, disgusting black coffee. I fidgeted constantly. Mokuba said he hadn't seen me sit still in a very long time. I couldn't remember how long I stayed in the office sometimes, and my little brother would sometimes worry when I appeared dazed at my desk, lost in thoughts or work.

Work, work, work. That's the ticket. I'd been trained all my life to work for success. I was abandoned at a young age, left to care for myself and my brother, and then adopted by a cutthroat CEO that was bringing the company up from the ground. I could remember vaguely sometimes, when the blood was pumping into my temples violently, the man handcuffing me to a desk, forcing me to work. Work, work, work, work, work. When I became a CEO, I gave up the remnants of my childhood. I watched them start to crumble when I began to be not only brother, but parent to Mokuba, then dissipate completely when my adoptive father took over.

That was just the way things were. Oddly enough, even after my adoptive father's death, I didn't feel handcuffed to my desk again until later. Until all the work began to pour into my office. I ran a worried hand through my hair, continuing to scribble my name on documents that I could hardly scan with my weary eyes. The door creaked open and I jolted, the only energy in my body coming from caffeine over the past two days. My secretary stood before me in her high heeled shoes and dark black hair.

"Mister Kaiba, there are more forms coming in for you."

"Send them in," I said, not really paying attention for her.

She gave a heavy sigh. "Fine."

I glanced up then, an attitude bubbling under my surface. "Excuse me?"

She chomped on her gum. God, that was annoying. "I said fine."

"I believe you're supposed to say _Yes, sir_."

"You haven't exactly been good company, _sir_, she said darkly. So I don't see why I have to respect you."

"If you don't respect me, you don't work for me. You're fired," I said curtly.

She glowered at me in shock. I shrugged, eyeing her cruelly. "You heard me. And before you go, send out an ad in the paper. I'm looking for a new secretary."

"Bastard," she hissed, slamming the door behind her.

Yeah. I was. I knew. I couldn't exactly help it. I hadn't slept in three days. I hadn't eaten a substantial meal in five days, and, dear God, I couldn't remember the last time I'd gotten laid. I rubbed my eyes and took another swig of my coffee, grimacing at the horrible taste. Yes, I needed a new secretary indeed. I suppose that's how my whole story started.

--

I was actually surprised at the turnout of secretaries. On probably the lightest workload day I had had in the past few years, I called in the small group for Mokuba and I to judge. Many of them were the same gum-chomping, attitude-wielding women that my previous secretary had been, but a few stood out in the crowd.

One especially because I'd seen her before.

Serenity Wheeler, sister of Joey Wheeler, probably around nineteen years old, stood before me in what was probably her best clothes (which looked like hand-me-downs from her mother) and her auburn hair pulled up in a clip. I raised an eyebrow at her, as if to ask _What are you doing here?_ Honestly, I was curious. She lowered her hazel eyes to the floor, which bothered me even more. I pointed to her.

"You." I stated it clearly, though my voice seemed wearier than I remembered. "Come with me."

She obliged quietly. I didn't know she was following except for the clicks of her high heeled shoes against the floor behind me.

"Tell me why you're here," I said, keeping my eyes forward, moving toward my office.

"I need a job," she said quite simply.

I opened the door to my office and gestured her to follow me in. She did. "I can honestly say I'm quite surprised that you chose _here_ of all places to work… Miss Wheeler."

She swallowed heavily - I saw it out of the corner of my eye. "Yes, I know. I just… this place offers good pay and I can do this job."

"Are you really so desperate for money?" I took a seat behind my desk, putting on a pair of glasses that I usually used when my tired eyes needed to read, and began to fish through the paperwork I had yet to do. "Your résumé, please."

"O-oh! Yes, right here." She handed me a manila folder with quite a few well organized papers within it. I looked it over. "Well, you're qualified, quite obviously. You've had positions like this before."

"Y-yes, I have. The pay wasn't very good, however. I needed to have a job that paid more. This one meets the requirements I'm looking for. I… I need the money so I can go to school. My mother recently passed away and I'm in debt."

I could hear the difficulty in her voice. She didn't want to tell me that. Not that I was surprised. Every since she'd met me she'd been told I was a cold-hearted bastard who tortured her brother for the sake of stroking my ego.

And they were right, so it really didn't matter.

"You realize that this is just menial work, right?" I looked over the rims of my glasses.

She nodded.

"You also realize that the reason you will be paid more because I'm not exactly the easiest boss to get along with."

She nodded again. "I understand that you're under a lot of stress…"

_Stress?_ She didn't know the half of it. I apparently conveyed that with my eyes because she looked away. I raised my eyebrows and folded my hands.

"Are you afraid of me, Miss Wheeler?"

There was a moment of silence. "No, I'm not."

"Could've fooled me," he said rather smoothly, glowering at a particularly difficult piece of paperwork. "You've hardly spoken. You don't really have the confidence it takes to want this job."

"I honestly didn't expect to even be seen by you," she replied quite matter-of-factly. "I thought I would at least try. Right now, you've got the best offer, and, though my family and yours haven't necessarily gotten along, I'm ready to put that aside to work in your establishment."

I folded my hands, actually impressed by her intellect.

"Tell me. Why didn't you receive a scholarship?"

She shook her head. "I… I had some difficulties and had to drop out of high school for a year. I've just recently finished my education, but colleges aren't looking for nineteen-year-old graduate. Not with a drop-out year on the transcript anyway."

"I see." I glanced over her résumé once more. "Well, you seem to be perfectly qualified."

I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. She seemed a little uncomfortable with my weariness. "You're hired," I said. "Now get to work. I need a secretary today."

"Wh-what? Oh! Right. Yes sir." She stood and headed toward the door.

"And get something flattering to wear, please?" I growled. "My office requires a nicer dress than what you're wearing."

"Yes, sir…" She quickly vanished behind the door.

So that was it. I hired a Wheeler to work beneath me. Something was a little bit funny about that. It was nice to have something amusing happen. Still, even with a Wheeler working for me, I still had far too much work on my hands to enjoy it. So I went right back to work.

--

(Author's Note: I doubt this story will be long. It's just a little idea I had, and I'm trying to get it out on paper. I'm not completely happy with it yet. I've always had difficulty writing Seto in character. He's very cold and calculating, and I'm trying to build onto his character with anxiety and stress - hence the title. Reviews and critiques are very much appreciated!)


	2. Chapter 2

-1--

Chapter Two

--

"Well, well, well," came a long droll as my office door opened up.

I was used to it. I didn't look up. "Mokuba…"

Mokuba had grown up quite a bit. He had shot up like a plant the year before, and, though his hair had been cut, his bangs still hung in his eyes. He hardly dressed professionally - baggy pants, ripped jackets, t-shirts…. Most people found it very hard to believe that he and I were even related. But I would never be ashamed of him, no matter how ridiculous he looked.

"Another new secretary," he said, leaning on my desk. "What did the other one do?"

"It doesn't matter. I didn't like her."

Mokuba half-scoffed, half-snickered. "You don't like anybody."

"I like you enough," I said, continuing to type on my computer. I had one-hundred-and-eighty-seven emails to answer. (And yes, I wanted to die.)

"This one's a Wheeler, Seto. A _Wheeler_! I don't mind her, but I'm a little shocked that you don't."

"She's a good worker. She's quiet. I have a Wheeler working below me. Seems good enough for me."

He grinned. "Ah, Seto. You're such a prick."

"Watch it," I looked up then, a warning look.

He laughed. "Okay, okay. Sorry. You want me to wash my mouth out with soap?"

"That could be entertaining," I said, moving my chair to the other side of the desk to grab a stack of forms that I needed.

There was moment of silence as I continued to work, the only sound the tap-tap-tapping of my fingers on the keys.

"How late are you working tonight?"

I sighed, suddenly feeling fatigued at the thought. "I… don't know."

"Seto, you're working too hard. You haven't been home in a couple of days. You're going to start growing into your chair."

"I know, Mokuba. I hate it, too. But if this company goes under, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do."

I rubbed my temples. His joking face turned to one of brotherly sympathy, one that reminded me far too much of our mother. I couldn't look at him.

"Seto, try to take a break once in awhile."

"I can't, Mokuba. If I put this in anyone else's hands-"

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before. People will try to take over the company when you have a heart attack and die at twenty-one too."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. I returned it.

"Don't you have homework to do?"

He sighed. "You're not going to listen to me are you?"

I shook my head. "Mokuba, I… I've just got to do this, okay?"

He sighed. "Alright. I'll see you in twenty years."

He sloughed off and out of the office, closing the door behind him. I felt somewhat ashamed. I hated that I couldn't spend time with him anymore. I felt as if all my hard work was going to nothing, and yet I couldn't stop doing it. It was all I knew. Work, work, work. I finished an email, sent off the reply, and deleted it.

One-hundred-and-eighty-six emails to go.

--

Serenity Wheeler

--

"Kaiba Corporation, please hold. Kaiba Corporation, please hold. Kaiba Corporation, please hold." I sighed, hitting the hold button for line six.

This job was nothing like my last secretarial positions. It was ridiculous. I couldn't even begin to wonder what Kaiba went through every day. I'd begun to notice that he never came out of his office. Sometimes I wondered if he lived in there. Sometimes, when I would come to work and see him wearing yesterday's clothing, he did. I sent the phones over to their prospective departments then paused.

I had made muffins that morning. I made them every once in awhile, even though Joey and I were hurting for money. They were one of life's little pleasures. I'd sent half a dozen with Joey to work and taken two with me. I still had one left. I reached into my bag and pulled out a blueberry muffin which I had wrapped in cellophane, then poured a glass of juice and headed to Seto Kaiba's office. He hadn't left his office in two days, so I supposed a good breakfast might do him good. I knocked.

"What?" came his answer. I swallowed and entered.

"Um… Mr. Kaiba?" I questioned.

He was surrounded with work, constantly moving, fidgety. He'd had far too much coffee.

"What is it?"

"I… er… I made muffins this morning…. I thought… you might want one."

He paused in the middle of typing, then looked over the black rims of his glasses at me. I held my ground, no matter how tempted I was to look way from his icy gaze.

"What?"

"Um… it's just breakfast." I set it on his desk with the juice. "I brought you juice instead of coffee. All that caffeine's bad for you…. You don't have to eat it, but I'll leave it here if you want it. You… also have a call on line three."

He stared at me with wide, emotionless eyes. I could see dark crescents under his eyes and he looked so much older in his exhaustion. I felt terrible for him. No matter how harsh he had the tendency to be, it was quite a shame that he had so much to do.

"…Thank you…" he said, looking almost surprised with himself. He picked up the phone. "This is Seto Kaiba."

He never specified what he thanked me for, but I like to think it was for the breakfast. When I returned later with a pile of forms, the cellophane was in the trash with the plastic cup.

Mokuba Kaiba was a delight when I was at work. He reminded me so much of Joey, it was uncanny. His wide grin and rough stature was almost loveable. He seemed to like being around me, too. He was always so kind and warm-hearted, and someone to talk to when all the work was being done elsewhere.

"Mokuba, what are you doing on my computer?" I asked.

"Solitaire," he said. "What do you do on it?"

I smiled. "I tend to work. But otherwise, solitaire."

He returned it. "I like you, Serenity. You're the one secretary that's actually nice. None of the other secretaries are ever friendly."

I blinked, surprised. "Why?"

"_Why?_ Because of my brother, that's why. He works so much…. He gets stressed really easily, and… well, he's not very easy to work with. So it rubs off on them and they end up not being easy to work with. Problem for them is that they get fired if _they're_ not easy to work with. Seto's the boss. He can be as big of a jerk that he wants."

_So I've noticed,_ I thought.

"Sometimes I wonder how you two even ended up related, Mokuba. You're so kind and sweet…"

He gazed sadly at the computer screen, double-clicking the Ace of Hearts. "He's not so bad. It's just… you don't know him, you know?"

I felt guilty for saying something like that. "I'm sorry, Mokuba. I didn't mean that…"

"No… you're right. The more the work piles on, the meaner and more aloof he gets. It's just everything he's learned. He never told me why he got that way. He didn't used to be, but something's up in his head. I don't know…"

"Haven't you ever asked?"

"No. He wouldn't tell me anyway."

--

For weeks I did my job at Kaiba Corporation, and every day I came home to Joey complaining about it. I knew he didn't like it, and it bothered me that he had to voice his opinion on it at every free opportunity, but I was bringing home good money and we actually got some food besides ramen. I noticed he didn't complain as much on Fridays when I brought home my paychecks.

I took a little bit of the money to buy some new work clothes - after all, Seto Kaiba continuously and bluntly critiqued my outfit almost every morning. I figured that if he was going to continue to keep me on his staff, I owed him to at least dress as well as his other workers. Besides, I finally had the money for it. I hardly saw the man, however. It seemed as the weeks went on, he spent more and more time in the office. One morning, I stepped into the room to find him practically buried in work.

"Serenity," he said, rapidly moving through different forms and emails and designs for new technology. " I need you to run to my house."

"What? Why?" I asked, surprised by his request.

He looked up at me with cold, frighteningly azure eyes. "I need some clothes. I have a meeting in twenty minutes and I can't be wearing the same thing I've been wearing for two days. Here." He tossed me some car keys. "Take the Mercedes. It's silver. Parking garage, 2-03."

I was dumbfounded. I don't think I had ever held something so expensive in my hands, and they were just keys! "Y-yes… sir. Anything in particular?"

"No. Just something nice. Get going. If you're late getting back, you're fired."

"Right!" I yelped, rushing out the door.

God, the man was so intimidating! I had to take off my high heels to rush across the parking garage. Other workers gawked at me as if I was crazy. I was so ridiculously blue-collar sometimes, but at least I had painted my toes recently. When I got to Kaiba's car, I had to take a moment to breathe.

It was probably the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

It was a gorgeous silver with a small blue pinstripe outlining certain features on the car. I opened the door to find a dark leather interior and all the latest technology. Yes, I was going to enjoy driving that little baby. I turned on the GPS, and a woman's voice came through.

"Where to?" The computer asked.

"Seto Kaiba's home," I said.

"Right away."

I drove out of the parking garage and out onto the street. The GPS was leading me straight to his home.

_I've never been inside his home before…_ I thought idly as I wheeled into the driveway.

Something told me that going inside his home might very well let me take a peek into the withdrawn CEO's life. So, perhaps, I thought, that my trip would end up more interesting than I first imagined.

And besides, if driving a Mercedes was part of my job, I wasn't quitting any time soon.

--

(Author's Note: Still not sure exactly where this story's going. I hope you guys will take the trip with me. Let's see what happens. I do have a couple of ideas…)


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